Xbox

The new Razer headphones dedicated to PlayStation and Xbox arrive that promise ultra-low latency and surround sound

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What headphones do you use to play the console? If until now you were not using any model or if you have simply been wanting to renew the ones you already have for a while, pay attention because Razer has launched its Razer Hammerhead V3X HyperSpeed in PlayStation and Xbox edition. Of course, be careful not to get confused because they have arrived in two different versions: Razer Hammerhead V3X HyperSpeed ​​(PlayStation) by 109.99 euros. Razer Hammerhead V3X HyperSpeed ​​(Xbox) by 109.99 euros. Razer Hammerhead V3 X HyperSpeed ​​(PlayStation) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Razer Hammerhead V3 X HyperSpeed ​​(Xbox) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links New Razer headsets for PlayStation and Xbox The Razer Hammerhead V3 TWS Bluetooth headphones that stand out mainly because the brand promises a ultra low latencysomething important to have a good experience and that the audio does not have delay when listening to the sound through the headphones. The funny thing is that these headphones can be used through your Bluetooth connectivity or via the 2.4 GHz network. For the latter, the charging case works as a receiver so that the connection is stable and with lower latency. Obviously, the case also serves to recharge the headphones’ battery, offering, according to the brand, an autonomy of up to 35 hours. The headphones work with Bluetooth 5.3 to ensure better connection stability and greater range. They also have IPX4 certification with water resistance (specifically water jets) and come with touch controls on the headphones themselves. On the other hand, the Razer Hammerhead V3 immersive experience being compatible with Windows Sonic on Xbox, 3D audio on PlayStation and THX Spatial Audio on PC. The Razer Hammerhead V3 X HyperSpeed ​​are now available in two versions for PlayStation and Xbox. They can even be purchased from supplier stores such as Amazon. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: Razer Hammerhead V3 X HyperSpeed ✅ THE BEST Your connectivity– Can be used via Bluetooth 5.3 or 2.4 GHz connection. Its theoretical autonomy: Up to 10 hours with the earbuds and up to 35 with the charging case. ❌ THE WORST They do not have multipoint connection (Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz). 💡 BUY IT IF… You are looking for Bluetooth headphones to play the console that are comfortable, offer immersive sound and ultra-low latency. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… You want the immersive experience that over-ear headphones offer, especially because of the passive noise isolation. You may also be interested Sony INZONE Buds, True Wireless Gaming Headphones, Low Latency Transceiver, Compatible with PC and PS5, 360 Spatial Sound, Light and Comfortable, Noise Cancelling, AI Microphone, 24 Hour Battery The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xbox Wireless Headset Forza Horizon 6 Limited Edition Series X|S, One, PC and Cloud-Enabled Devices The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Razer In Xataka | Best Bluetooth speakers in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and seven recommended models In Xataka | Best sound bars in quality price (2026). Which one to buy and seven recommended models from 99 euros

Xbox wants to have 1 billion players a day. It’s what 25 Steam would do on their best day

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Another day in the video game industry, this Monday Microsoft announced layoffs at Xbox. 1,600 at once, five studios to make a living and another 1,600 layoffs over the next few months. To carry out the restructuring, what is known as “Xbox reset”Microsoft put Asha Sharma at the head of the company who came from one of the company’s AI divisions and who arrived with a clear mission: to break with the past. After weeks of good words, drastic decisions began and, in a release gigantic, justified the decisions of layoffs and restructuring (the consequences of which we still do not fully know, since we have been learning about layoffs in different Xbox studios for two days). There are interesting data, such as extreme bureaucracy within Xbox that had complicated things in recent years, the enormous investment in Game Pass and the fact that caught my attention the most: the number of daily players that Xbox wants. Because Sharma talks about wanting a billion people to be “entertained” with Xbox every day. And, after wondering what it means to have a billion people every day on your platform, I have only been able to come to one conclusion: I would like to see how they do it. The Xbox of a billion players and the old woman’s account I don’t say this in a defiant sense, but out of genuine curiosity. I would like to see how Xbox, or any company, for that matter, is able to bring together a billion people a day on its platform. Sharma comments that they see themselves capable of achieving that goalbut the point is that there are many more stimuli than ever and, furthermore, setting these goals only has one consequence: when they are not met, there will be more ‘resets’. Let’s go in parts. The changes they are making seek to ensure that “Xbox has a bigger future, not a smaller one.” Furthermore, he notes that “the next decade of games will be bigger, more global and more creative than anything we’ve seen before.” Said like this, you may think that they are going to invest a lot (they themselves say that they are going to invest a lot, but with a better focus and discipline), but there is a problem: are there really that many players willing to be on your platform? What is an Xbox? Answering the first question, players… there are. We are more than 8,000 million people throughout the world and esteem what’s there around 3 billion people who play video games. This in total, not on a daily basis and, furthermore, you must keep in mind that everything is mixed here: the accounts include everything from the most ‘Eat’ of ‘Call of Duty’ to your grandfather who plays ‘Candy Crush’ or a Facebook game. Responding to the second, Sharma says they want a billion people entertained with Xbox. And not only those who have a console count (whose sales are quite poor), but also those who play from PC and Xbox games on Steam and platforms like PS5. That is, everything that has the Xbox seal. That said, let’s tell why one billion people seem to get it “easy” Yes, you have so many franchises and you are present everywhere, but things get complicated if we put the magnifying glass on the few games that can really help the company achieve those figures. They are all estimates, but we would talk about 110 million monthly players in ‘Minecraft’, between 70 and 90 million (counting mobile phones) monthly in ‘Call of Duty’ and between 200 and 300 million players diaries in ‘Candy Crush’. There we see the dimension of mobile games, really, and how they crush those on more traditional platforms. ‘World of Warcraft’ too would enter there, with about 9 million monthly players. These are figures that many companies would like, but they are far from those 1,000 million a day that Sharma points to. To further contextualize, Steam, which is another of the huge video game platforms, had its historical peak of players a few months ago, reaching more than 42 million. In the last 24 hours, almost 39 million people connected and, as we see in graphs like Steamdb, they are very stable… and in growth. Well, Sharma wants the same as they would get 25 Steams every day. As a player, I would love to have so many people because it would allow, perhaps, the industry to be somewhat more sustainable because there would be many more players among which smaller studios could find their place to grow, but the problem I see with these accounts is that, publishing that you want there to be 1,000 million people on your platform, the only result (the most likely, at least) is failure. And when you fail in such a large company when you have set this as an objective, the manager is not the one who pays the bill: it is the employees. It’s something we see constantly and We come from three years of constant layoffs in the industry to be optimistic about the issue. What we have seen these days is that they are changing the strategy in that sense. They are releasing the smaller studios that do not sell to bet on what makes money. An example is King (‘Candy Crush’) and Mojang (‘Minecraft’), which They will report directly to herwith Sharma being the one who will make the decisions to achieve the objective. Another thing is whether people who watch the ‘Fallout’ series, a game series whose license belongs to Xbox, count as “people entertained by Xbox.” We just have to wait and see what happens, but it is evident that Xbox’s turnaround is there, releasing studios that were developing games with soul to bet on what makes money. After all, it is the objective of every company. In Xataka | The best time to buy an electronic device was yesterday. The second best time is today

The Xbox CEO promised a big Xbox reset. That translates into 3,200 layoffs and five studios looking for a new home

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Asha Sharma, the new CEO of Xbox, arrived with the ax ready and prepared to cut off heads and, after days of rumors about layoffs and closure of studieswe already have the conclusion. It was expected that this July 6 we would have news about the restructuring of Xbox, the so-called ‘reset’ of the divisionand the figure that draws attention is the 3,200 people who will lose their jobs. That is not, by any means, the end of the story because since Bloomberg It is pointing to two very hard months for employees, although also a positive note with regard to some of the most reputable studios that it had purchased in recent years. Asha Sharma and the great Xbox reset Jason Schreier is one of the most reliable journalists in the video game industry and, as he points out in Bloomberg, in an internal email from Asha Sharma to the members of the company, the CEO ensures that the business “it is not profitable”. Sharma comments that Xbox needs to be “restarted” because they are operating with margins three to ten times lower than comparable businesses. It is not the first time that Sharma alludes to the disastrous situation of Xbox because the company’s profit margin had fallen to 3% (not that they were losing 3%, but it had fallen, but they were still making money), and after all the motivational messages, the new Xbox commandments and changing the name of the division to XBOX with capital letters, the conclusion to reverse the situation is that drastic decisions had to be made. According to Schreier, and as has been filtered, Starting today, 1,600 jobs will be eliminatedwhile it will execute another 1,600 over the coming months. In total, 3,200 layoffs at Xbox alone while Microsoft is also cutting 3,200 positions in other sections away from Xbox. 6,400 people sounds outrageous, but it is just 3% of a workforce of 228,000 people. They are not definitive figures, since Microsoft ensures that They are still in the early stages of the journey. and that there will be more changes ahead in an exercise in austerity to bet on the only thing that seems to excite companies: artificial intelligence. But beyond eliminating so many jobs, the big question of what will happen to the studies was on the table. The state of Xbox studios In recent days there has been talk of several studios that could be closed, sold or “released” and at Xataka we have stayed away from those rumors, but now Schreier sheds a little light on the matter. It may seem like a consolation for fools, but Xbox seems like it won’t dismantle them. Ninja Theory (creators of ‘Hellblade’ and Undead Labs (‘State of Decay’) will be sold to unspecified buyers. The two studios will continue working for the moment on announced games (Senua’ and ‘State of Decay 3’). Double Fine (Psychonauts’) and Compulsion Games (‘South of Midnight’) will separate and become private studios again. Sharma assures that the two will retain their intellectual properties (thank goodness), but things look uncertain for Arkane Lyon. The studio is developing a ‘Blade’ game, but Microsoft is “reviewing possible strategic options to sell or spin off the studio). Why is things not clear with Arkane? Because French laws protect more than American ones and Microsoft is exploring the avenues it has. These five studies were never bestsellers, but They were purchased under the management of Phil Spencer to ‘fatten up’ the catalog of a recently presented Game Pass and Sharma now notes that “they created significant value, but they did not grow at the rate we expected.” The new CEO’s strategy, in fact, seems different from Phil’s. While under his command many (too many) studies were purchasedSharma points to smaller models of supporting independent creators, alluding to the fact that “it is neither possible nor desirable to own all the large independent studios.” The future of Xbox To finish, Sharma wants Xbox to reach one billion players daily to see a future in which Xbox is bigger, not smaller.” He assures that “this year we will invest as much in Xbox as ever, but with better focus, greater discipline and clarity, all in the service of making Xbox a place where everyone has a place.” At the moment, those who have no room are the 3,200 laid off now, which are added to the thousands laid off by Xbox in the last two years. And we will have to wait to see what happens inside ZeniMax, also owned by Xbox and where the developers of big franchises like ‘Wolfenstein’, ‘Fallout’ or ‘The Elder Scrolls’ are located. We will also have to wait and see what happens to studios that become independent because it is not exactly good news. Without the Microsoft umbrella, it may be difficult for those studios to keep all employees, so be cautious with the futures of Double Fine and Compulsion. In short, another sad day for the video game industry. In Xataka | Sony has told you why it stops selling games in physical format. The real reason, of course, is the same as always: money

Sony won the most important generation by humiliating Xbox with physical games. 13 years later he killed them

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Sony has just taken a stab at video games in physical format. Those discs that allowed PlayStation to build its empire with CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray on consoles like PS1, PS2 and PS3now they have a death date. Starting January 2028, there will be no more physical games for PlayStation consoles. The reactions have not been long in coming, with all industry players pointing out the impact of this decision. We will not own games because they are licenses, worry from small publishers, death to second hand and abandoning games and all because of a decision that makes industrial sense: absolute control by Sony in the distribution of games, their price and the margin they leave in their store. But since the newspaper archive is very bloody, it didn’t take long for those who, like myself yesterday, to remember a certain moment from E3 2013 to appear: the same moment in which PlayStation 4 won the competition Xbox One with three very simple decisions, but they disrupted Microsoft’s plans. Because it was at that same moment that PlayStation won the generation. And as the Xbox boss confessed some time later, they lost the worst generation that could be lost in the field of consoles. The battlefield? Physical games, the same ones that today have an expiration date. When you lose the worst generation you can lose June 2013, E3 plenary session. The great video game fair was preparing for a generational event. Both Sono and Microsoft had teased some features of the PS4 and Xbox One respectively in advance, but on June 10, the Xbox One would show off games and pricing, and on the same day but a few hours later, Sony would do the same for the PS4. What no one expected was what was about to happen. Xbox One already had controversies behind it due to the fact that the machine had been presented more as an entertainment system (with an emphasis on watching television on it) than as a console. Besides, in a gross communication failureit was also noted that the discs needed online verification every few hours for Microsoft to verify that the game was yours. This meant that if you didn’t have Internet, you might not be able to play your games, and the division’s boss himself sent out the message. “If you don’t have Internet access, we have a product for you. It’s called Xbox 360”. When you present your new machine, it is not elegant to say that if someone doesn’t want it, they have the old one because the easiest thing that can happen is that they end up looking at the competition. And the competition… tightened. After the mess with the verification of physical copies on Xbox One, Sony attacked. During his conference, starting at the hour and 57 minute mark, Jack Tretton, who was COO of Sony Computer Entertainment, spent a few minutes stating that they believed in the physical format, in sharing and reselling your games on disc and in doing whatever you wanted with them. Of course, there would be no ‘online check’ to verify the discs either. He won a lot of applause with the speech that you can see here: That moment, added to the fact that PS4 was going to cost 100 euros less than the confusing Xbox One, marked the generation, but there was more blood. On the same day of the presentation, PlayStation recorded a video in which two of its heavyweights did a complete tutorial of what the process of leaving games between PS4 users was going to be like. It is one of the most iconic moments of these fairs and one of the last moments I remember in which one company went so hard against another in this console thing: The previous generation, the PS3 and Xbox 360, ended with the two machines selling a very similar number of units, but the PS4 and Xbox One began with the Sony machine sweeping sales. Xbox retracted its policiesbut it was late and when Phil Spencer took the reins of the division and started making moves (lower the price, remove mandatory Kinect, etc.), it was… well, that’s it: late. Xbox One sold so little that Microsoft made the decision to stop providing data on consoles sold. When that happens, things go wrong because everyone likes to stick out their chests when the wind is in their favor, and a few years later, Spencer himself commented that they lost the generation they shouldn’t lose. “We lost the worst generation you could lose, the one where everyone built their digital games library” – Phil Spencer Among their arguments, one made all the sense in the world: the PS4 and Xbox One was the generation of change, of the change from physical to digital, of the change from a model of consoles that were a blank canvas to one in which people wanted to continue playing their games from past generations. And, above all, the generation in which it was more important than ever to provide continuity to that digital ecosystem. Spencer summarized with the phrase “we lost the worst generation that could be lost, the one in which everyone built their library of digital games.” As I say, it makes perfect sense because if you went from an Xbox 360 to a new console, it didn’t matter to you because there was no backward compatibility (it was added later in the case of Xbox). You had to start from scratch, and the same if you went from PS3 to PS4. Therefore, Xbox 360 users who were not happy with the new policies were able to switch to PS4 without fear of losing anything because there was nothing to lose. However, as On PS4 and Xbox One the digital ecosystem began to developusers began to buy more and more games in that format. If you had a PS4 with an account in which you had invested money in dozens of games, it was … Read more

In three days we have seen crazy prices on hardware from Apple, Xbox and Valve. Obviously, these are not isolated events.

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Three pieces of news about hardware price increases or announcements in three days, and all three have met with open rejection from the public. Valve confirms that its new console costs more than 1,000 euros (or much more, depending on the model). Apple raises all its Macs and iPads by 20% on average. Microsoft announces the third Xbox increase in fourteen months. And they all give the same reason, which has been causing the tech industry to convulse for months. The worst: at the moment there is no light at the end of the tunnel. The prices. This past Monday, June 22, Valve wakefulness the final price of its long-awaited Steam Machine: 1,039 euros for the 512 GB model without controller. And that is the economic option. On Thursday morning the 25th, Apple updated their online store with increases of 15 to 20% on all Macs and iPads; The MacBook Air went from 1,099 to 1,299 euros, and the MacBook Neo, the entry-level laptop that the company introduced in March at $599, rose to $699. hours laterMicrosoft: Xbox Series S and Series The reason, which has now become sadly familiar: the RAM and storage crisis. Who is to blame. Neither Apple, Microsoft nor Valve are responsible for this situation. They are the three manufacturers that produce 90% of the world’s DRAM: Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron. They have all made the same decision: prioritize contracts with artificial intelligence data centers over the consumer market. Micron, for example, closed its consumer division in 2025 (the Crucial brand) to redirect its capacity towards industrial customers. SK Hynix, Nvidia’s main supplier, stated that Its production for this year was completely sold. The pressures. A Valve spokesperson described it bluntly in an interview: “They give us a price every month and then they say ‘you can buy this amount’ and it’s a yes or no. And if we say no, they never talk to us again.” It is the same scheme for all companies, just with different consequences depending on the size of the order. Apple has room to negotiate because it sells tens of millions of units a year. Valve, not so much: its hardware volume is incomparably smaller. But the result is similar: the costs have been shot until they cannot be absorbed internally. Tim Cook acknowledged it before the announcement: the situation is already “unsustainable.” Why consoles pay more. Significantly, consoles are especially vulnerable to this crisis. Unlike a MacBook or a phone, consoles have historically sold below their manufacturing cost, assuming that lRevenue from games and subscriptions will cover the difference over time. Microsoft explained it very light: “Unlike phones, computers and other devices, consoles are generally not sold at a profit, but for less than it costs to make them.” That model works when component costs are predictable, but if RAM rises without being possible to anticipate, the market is thrown into chaos. For example, Nintendo is paying 41% more for 12 GB of RAM which includes each unit of Switch 2 with respect to the original projections. Maintaining the sales price in that scenario would mean a loss of $50 per console sold. The case of Xbox is even more striking because it does not stop accumulating increases. The first in May 2025, the second in October of that same year and now this third. According to Microsoft, the cost of console storage and memory “has increased more than 2.5 times” since the last revision. Valve in trouble. The component crisis applied to consumer hardware has hit Valve with particular fury. The Steam Machine was announced in November 2025 pricelesswith internal projections that placed it around 700-800 dollars. The company explains which was based on years of data on the evolution of PC hardware prices, which “tend to go down over time as new technology arrives.” But just the opposite happened: when DRAM manufacturers redirected their capacity towards AI, Valve stopped getting stable prices for its components. Every month a new price arrives; either it is accepted or there is no supply. There is one detail in the launch that illustrates the precarious supply better than any figure: some Steam Machine units are shipping to analysts with a single 16 GB RAM module, while others arrive with two 8 GB modules. The situation has reached the point that the same type of module is not always available. How long will things last? Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said it no room for optimism in the Q3 fiscal 2026 earnings report: “We expect shortage conditions to persist beyond 2027 as a result of AI-driven demand across all segments, coupled with structural supply constraints.” He added that even with a gradual improvement planned for 2028, “there is currently no visibility on when memory supply will be able to catch up with growing demand.” Microsoft, for its part, expects “another doubling” of console storage and memory prices by fall 2027. The consequences beyond the current moment are already beginning to become clear. sony consider delaying the launch of PS6 until 2028 or 2029which would make this period between PlayStation generations the longest in its history. And even when the shortage moderates, no price drops expected: the new level of costs will tend to stabilize, not reverse. That is to say, the week we have just experienced, more than an occasional tsunami, is the advance of a new pricing structure for consumer hardware. In Xataka | Intel and AMD are setting their prices through the roof, so the TikTok company has decided to create its own chip

Microsoft has just announced a global increase in its Xbox consoles and gives its reasons

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If we thought that the rise of PS5the announced price for the Steam Machine or the increase in the price of several Apple products They were isolated episodes, the answer is beginning to be quite clear: they were not. What we are seeing is a cost pressure that no longer remains within the data centers or in the internal accounts of the manufacturers. It’s coming to devices we know well, from computers to consoles. And now it’s Xbox’s turn. Microsoft has set a date to the next move: the adjustment will take effect on August 1, 2026 and will have global scope. According to the company, 512 GB Xbox consoles will increase by $100, while 1 TB models will become more expensive by $150. The other relevant decision is that Microsoft will stop selling its 2 TB model, a recall that affects the Xbox Series X Galaxy Black Special Edition. The clearest way to read the rise is to separate markets. In USA We can now take the complete photo, because we have the current price and the result of applying the increase announced by Microsoft. In Europe, however, there is still no new official table in euros for August. What is confirmed is that the adjustment will be global, so it will also reach Spain. United States, current price and price since August 1, 2026 Xbox Series S 512 GB: $399.99 to $499.99 Xbox Series S 1TB: $449.99 to $599.99 Xbox Series X Digital 1TB: $599.99 to $749.99 Xbox Series X 1TB: $649.99 to $799.99 Xbox Series X 2 TB Galaxy Black Special Edition: Microsoft will stop selling this model Europe and Spain, official prices valid from May 2025 Xbox Series S 512 GB: 349.99 euros Xbox Series S 1 TB: 399.99 euros Xbox Series X Digital 1 TB: 549.99 euros Xbox Series X 1 TB: 599.99 euros Xbox Series X 2 TB Galaxy Black Special Edition: 699.99 euros, although the model will disappear from the catalog Microsoft does not present the increase as a decision taken lightly. In its statement, the company recalls that in October 2025 it already raised the price of Xboxes in the United States between $20 and $70, and states that “We hoped it wasn’t necessary.“apply another increase. The problem, according to their version, is in the costs of memory and storage, which have become more than 2.5 times more expensive and could double again by autumn 2027. The company frames the movement within a component crisis that affects consumer electronics, but that hits consoles hardest because, according to Microsoft, they tend to be sold below what it costs to manufacture them. Memory has become the new bottleneck Microsoft doesn’t directly mention artificial intelligence in its statement, but the market context helps explain why memory and storage have become a bigger issue. The Wall Street Journal has described the massive deployment of data centers as a new engine of inflationary pressurewith impact on components, electricity and consumer products. TrendForce has also noted that demand linked to AI is absorbing memory and storage capacity. Now, the Redmond firm is trying to accompany the rise with several ways to soften the blow to the buyer. They talk about deferred payment options in the Microsoft Store, interest-free financing for up to 12 months on eligible purchases through Amazon, buyback programs with retail partners and more availability of certified refurbished consoles. It also mentions that refurbished Xboxes can be found in the Microsoft Store with up to $100 off the recommended price. The fine print matters: These options vary by region, depend on third parties, and are subject to eligibility conditions. The bottom line is that the old cheap console logicsold with little margin to recover later in games and services, is colliding with a different reality. If memory, storage and other components become more expensive due to a demand that does not depend only on the video game, the manufacturer has less room to absorb the blow. At the end of the day, we consumers are the ones who end up paying the price. We have to wait to see what other movements of this type will occur in the industry. Images | Microsoft In Xataka | “If you tell them no, they won’t talk to you again”: Valve blames RAM manufacturers for the price of the Steam Machine

The price of Steam Machine was predictable. The worrying thing is what it tells us about PS6 and Xbox Helix

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After announcing it in November of last year and keeping it in a dangerous limbo due to component crisisValve has confirmed the Steam Machine priceending weeks of rumors with a result that surprises few. that the Steam Machine had ballots to cost 1,000 euros, it was not a surprise (and even more so after the stratospheric Steam Deck price increase), but the worst is what is advancing for the next generation of consoles. Nails PS6 and Xbox Helix that they should be a generational leap and that are being given the price of the most expensive consoles in history. The 1,000 euros. When Valve announced the PC, it did so without a price. He invited experts to his offices so they could try out some games, see the machine both inside and out, and experience what the new Steam Machine could do (because there were already some that They failed more than a decade ago) could offer. The price debate immediately arose and, when doing the math, it was estimated among the 600 and 800 euros in the most pessimistic estimate. Reality has ended up far exceeding that forecast because the 1,039 euros are for the version with 512 GB of storage, the 2 TB version goes to 1,359 euros and then you have a pack with the controller for both configurations. Clearly, it is a very high price and, although it has the advantage of the form factor and a dissipation that seems very efficient, there are no performance advantages over a piece-based PC. It’s not ‘next gen’. Because, beyond the price, something that is being discussed is that the performance is nothing like the other Thursday either. Gamer Nexus either Digital Foundry They have already been able to get their hands on the system and the conclusion is that the performance (roughly) is similar to a 12 GB RTX 3060, an RTX 3050, an Arc A770 or an RX 6600. We are not talking about cutting-edge hardware at all. Not at all. It’s something that depends on the game and its optimization, but that’s where the shots go. And, if we want a simpler comparison, putting it next to a PS5 In performance mode (prioritizes FPS rate), making the game’s visual specs on Steam Machine match those of PS5, performance is very, very similar. Sometimes above PS5, sometimes below. We are talking about the base PS5, the one from 2020, not the PS5 Pro. More than 1,000 euros to move around the performance of a six-year-old machine is not good news. Steam Machine vs PS5 in ‘Forza Horizon 5’. Screenshot of the Digital Foundry video Steam Machine vs PS5 in ‘007 First Light’. Screenshot of the Digital Foundry video Steam Machine vs PS5 in ‘Black Myth Wukong’. Screenshot of the Digital Foundry video Steam Machine vs PS5 in ‘Alan Wake 2’. Screenshot of the Digital Foundry video Steam Machine vs PS5 in ‘Crimson Desert’. Screenshot of the Digital Foundry video PS6 and Xbox Helix, when. The more than 1,000 euros with the component crisis (which will last a few more years) no one will lower it to us anymore, but… what about the new generation consoles? We have been in the current generation for six years and it is an open secret (in the case of Xbox it is not even a secret) that both Microsoft and Sony are working on their new machines. If everything had continued as it seemed, PS6 and Helix should have seen the light between 2027 and 2028. PS5 has a good sales pace with 90 million units sold and ‘GTA VI‘ is postulated as that title that will allow the Sony machine to have a final run before the next generation. The problem is the same one that Valve has faced: the component crisis. A few weeks ago, Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox, pointed out that at the beginning of 2027 they would send the Helix development kits to companies, which indicates that we would see the machine at the end of the year or the beginning of 2028 and something more important: the console was going to be expensive. Rposing things. Since then, the wheel has continued to turn and Microsoft itself has spoken again about Helix, pointing out that what they wanted to achieve at the hardware level was getting out of hand because it is more expensive every day to set up a platform. Sharma commented that mass audiences “won’t spend thousands of dollars on a new generation of consoles,” so they were rethinking things with “radically different business models,” whatever that means. What is clear is that assembling a console that represents a generational leap compared to what we have had since 2020 is not cheap for companies that have to calculate the price/performance ratio very well and, although consoles are not the main source of income for the video game divisions of Sony and Microsoft, they cannot go to wild losses either. Hold on a little longer. The bad thing is that hope is not something that is in the equation at a time when we see that a machine like the Steam Machine, with its more than 1,000 euros, hopefully equals the performance of a base PS5. And that anticipates two futures: new consoles that are more powerful and much more expensive than current ones or hybrid consoles that rely on streaming gaming, which would further complicate the already damaged preservation scene. A third option? May both Microsoft and Sony hold on to their current generation a little longer. It is something that would be easier for Sony, which has the PS5 Pro on the market and much more stock than Microsoft, but by holding PS5 longer and delaying PS6 it would be able to take advantage a little more of a current generation that feels wasted in some aspects and, above all, it would be giving the component market time to recover. If not, consoles costing more than 1,000 euros at launch will be … Read more

Xbox anticipates changes beyond Project Helix

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Yesterday Nintendo closed non-E3. The video game fair as we knew it died a few years agobut its spirit lives on in the form of conferences that take place in the first half of June and in which companies show the news that will arrive on their platforms over the coming months. PlayStation, the aforementioned Nintendo, the Summer Game Fest or the PC Game Show have been some of them, but If there is one that is attracting attention, it is Xbox. And it turns out that he is not talking about his games (many old acquaintances that are now simply dated), but rather because of the change in strategy after the arrival of Asha Sharma as new CEO from Microsoft’s video game division. Because where before there were own games that would even come out for PlayStation, now there are a return to console exclusives. And within those consoles is a Project Helix which, supposedly, will be the new Microsoft machine and that it will not be easy. To the point that they are rethinking what Project Helix should be, how much it should cost or if we are prepared for such expensive consoles. And Asha Sharma adds one more question: a business model we would never have expected and that could start this year. We are going little by little because there is a lot to unpack. From the “can Xbox be fixed?” to a Project Helix that arrives at the worst possible time After a conference like the one we saw on Sunday, it is logical that questions will arise. The entire conversation is revolving around the issue of the return to exclusives, implying that a Microsoft that finds it difficult to maintain stock of its own consoles is abandoning a fleet of Sony consoles that exceeds, by several tens of millions of units, the installed Xbox. Microsoft games on PS5 They operate on a commercial levelwith notable examples such as ‘Forza Horizon 5‘and, above all, ‘Sea of ​​Thieves‘. But Sharma wants Xbox to become number one in gaming and believes that that path passes through the return of the exclusives. It is a somewhat strange maneuver because those first chosen will be ‘Gears of War E-Day‘ (which we later learned was planned for PS5 until a few days ago) and ‘Clockwork Revolution‘. Others like ‘Halo: Campaign Evolved‘for this July 28 or future ones’State of Decay 3‘, ‘Fables‘ and ‘Senua‘yes they will see the light on the Sony console. If nothing changes again, of course. Matt Booty, head of the Xbox games division, warned at the conference that each case will be reviewed individually, implying that they are also not very clear about which games will reach other consoles and which will not. “Do you think Xbox can be fixed?” – Asha Sharma asked Matthew Ball But, in any case and beyond the video games themselves, there is something else floating in the air. We know that Xbox is working on its new console, the aforementioned Helix. It will be a kind of hybrid between console and PC, something that makes a lot of sense if we take into account Microsoft’s business and, above all, that Steam is preparing exactly the same thing with its Steam Machine. A few weeks ago, Asha Sharma commented that the hardware existed and they are closing the details to be able to send the development kits (necessary to start developing the games) to the video game studios at the beginning of next year. He also ‘threatened’ the price, pointing out that Project Helix will not be a cheap machine because the situation with the components is what it is. Hardware that will have a good amount of memory and storage will be very, very expensive. We are seeing it on mobilesrouters and even on the Raspberry Pibut what has scared many of us is the relaunch of a Steam Machine with a premium of almost 300 euros. After being out of stock for months due to out-of-stock due to the supply of components, the machine returned with several hundred euros extra price. This situation did not bode well either for a Steam Machine that, supposedly, will arrive this summer… or for a PS6 and Project Helix that we should see sometime in 2027. Given all the necessary context, let’s go with Matthew Ball. Ball is Xbox’s new head of strategy. He responds to a Sharma who asked him one thing before signing him: Can Xbox be fixed? Ball believes so, rewarding players who have stayed on Xbox with this return of exclusives as a way to “validate the historical investment” of those players. It must be remembered that someone who buys a ‘Forza Horizon 6‘on PS5 he is also an Xbox player, for example, but oh well. About Helix, Ball points out in a interview that it would not make sense for the company to get out of the hardware business and that they are making this return to exclusives, precisely, to strengthen their platform. Now, it also supports what Sharma already said: the next Xbox will arrive in a context in which the AI ​​boom has skyrocketed the cost of components. “I think we will start to see radically different business models that we would never have expected to come into being later this year” – Asha Sharma In addition to pointing out that they cannot produce consoles at the same rate as they are demanded (hence the stock outage in many markets, with Xbox Series X showing a premium because they are not units that Xbox sells directly), points out something interesting: They are fighting to make the console design not be compromised by the situation, but at the same time trying to make it affordable in a context of high costs that are expected to continue for at least the next two and a half years. That is to say: they need to launch a new machine, but one that is not as expensive as the original … Read more

Xbox Project Helix, information

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Several years have passed since Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S They landed in living rooms around the world, and Microsoft is beginning to show the cards for what comes next. Project Helix is the code name for the next generation of Xbox, a console that, judging by how little (and how much) is already known about it, is not going to be too similar to what the company has offered us so far. Under these lines we bring together everything we know about the next generation of Xbox to date. What is Project Helix? Project Helix is the official codename for the next-generation Xbox console. Microsoft confirmed it publicly in March 2026, when Asha Sharma, the new CEO of Xboxwho came to office after the Phil Spencer’s retirement At the end of February, he announced it through his X account. According to counted Sharma at the time, the console “will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games.” As is common in the industry, this is not a definitive brand name. As happened with Project Scarlett and Lockhart, which eventually became Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S respectively, Project Helix will receive another name when Xbox confirms it. Until then, this is how we will refer to the device. What has been clear from the beginning is that Microsoft has ambitions that go well beyond a simple generational update. According to Jason Ronaldvice president of Xbox’s next-generation division, the team has been working hard on the hardware for some time and at GDC 2026 in March confirmed that they are “in full development” of the console. What type of console is it? This is perhaps the most striking feature of Project Helix, and the one that has generated the most stir in the industry. Unlike its predecessors, the console will not only run Xbox games, but It will also be able to run PC titles. And supposedly not only from the Microsoft store, but also from other digital platforms such as Steam or GOG natively. Microsoft has been moving towards the idea that “everything is an Xbox” for some time, erasing the boundaries between console and PC. Project Helix would be the most ambitious materialization of that philosophy. Ronald himself counted already at GDC that “the days when people defined themselves as console, PC or mobile gamers really don’t exist anymore.” Xbox Series X For developers, Microsoft is preparing a unified development kit (GDK) that will allow them to release a single version of a game and reach both console and PC users, something that would considerably reduce the effort of studios to adapt their games to multiple platforms. According to Wccftechthe user interface will be built around an evolved version of the Xbox Full Screen Experience, similar to what already exists on laptops ASUS ROG Xbox Ally. In addition, in April 2026, the so-called “Xbox Mode” began to be deployed in Windows 11, a full-screen, controller-optimized experience that acts as a preview of the Project Helix environment. It is only available on Windows 11 and serves both to mature the ecosystem and to familiarize PC players with what is to come. What are its technical specifications? Microsoft and AMD have been deliberately brief with specific numbers, preferring to talk about design philosophy rather than TFLOPS. But what has been officially confirmed, combined with what internal sources have revealed, already offers a fairly clear profile of the hardware. What is officially confirmed: AMD Custom SoC: Project Helix will be built on a custom chip designed jointly by Microsoft and AMD. AMD Senior Vice President Jack Huynh confirmed which uses the RDNA 5 GPU architecture and is manufactured in TSMC’s 3 nanometer process, which represents a huge leap in efficiency compared to the 7 nm of the Xbox Series X. New generation of DirectX and FSR Diamond: The console is co-designed for the next generation of DirectX. AMD has also confirmed that Project Helix will incorporate FSR Diamond, its new scaling and frame generation platform, which integrates a dedicated NPU for multi-frame generation, neural texture compression and neural rendering. dedicated NPU: The console includes a Neural Processing Unit integrated directly into the SoC, independent of the GPU and CPU, to handle all artificial intelligence-driven rendering tasks. Next level ray tracing:Microsoft has described Project Helix’s ray tracing performance as “an order of magnitude jump” over the current generation. This is supported in part by the new RDNA 5 architectures, which include so-called “Radiance Cores”, a specific hardware block for ray tracing, and “Neural Arrays”, a new approach to grouping GPU computing units as a unified artificial intelligence engine. What the leaks point out: Known leakers such as Moore’s Law Is Dead and KeplerL2 have stated on several occasions that the chip is internally called “Magnus” and would have: CPU: Hybrid design with up to 11 cores, with up to 3 high-performance Zen 6 cores and up to 8 efficiency Zen 6c cores. The frequencies of the performance cores are estimated to be in the range of 5.5-6 GHz. This would represent a huge generational leap over the Xbox Series X’s Zen 2 cores. GPU: 68 RDNA 5 compute units. Although only a 30% increase in units over the 52 Series Memory: GDDR7, according to industry analysts. According to Wccftech, if these leaks are correct, Project Helix could offer between 5 and 6 times the rasterization performance of Xbox Seriesand up to 20 times in ray tracing. However, we have no choice but to wait for official information to corroborate these data. When is Project Helix coming? There is no official date. What Microsoft has confirmed in the latest GDC is that the development units in the alpha phase will begin to arrive at the studios from 2027. From there, the calendar is speculative. The launch window that industry sources most point to is end of 2027although some analysts do not rule out 2028 either. In part, this will depend on when exactly the development kits arrive … Read more

Microsoft put the head of its AI department in charge of Xbox. Now it’s dismantling all of Xbox’s AI

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Asha Sharman is the new CEO of Xbox and has arrived with a mission: to blow up Xbox. At least, that is what he is proposing in the first three months of his mandate in which he took the reins of the company in one of the worst moments in its history, with a diffuse identity and with the responsibility of filling the shoes of a Phil Spencer who had been with the company for 40 years. The most curious thing is that Sharma came from presiding over CoreAI, one of Microsoft’s most important AI divisions, and is doing the opposite of what many of us expected. Dismantle AI from within. Distrust. The Xbox brand is not going through its best moment. Since the disastrous E3 in 2013 where the Xbox boss said that if someone didn’t want an always-connected console (Xbox One) they could stick with their old Xbox 360, things have gone downhill. That someone was a Don Mattrick who was replaced by Phil Spencer and with whom things began to change. Game Pass, studio purchases to feed the ecosystem and strategy changes such as launching games on PC and PlayStation. The accounts seemed to come out in services, but not in hardware or games. After all this time, Phil retired and a totally different profile arrived: that of Asha Sharman. The directive I wasn’t a gamer like Phil, he also had no gaming experience. He came from leading CoreAI, a Microsoft team focused on accelerating the development of AI software for internal and external customers to build and run AI applications and agents. Out with the AI. When it was announced that she would be in charge of replacing Phil, in the midst of the ‘Microslop’ meme, many of us feared the worst for the division. Even one of the fathers of Xbox He pointed out that Sharma was going to bury Xbox. However, through Twitter, the CEO has just launched a release quite interesting: “Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection to the community, and address friction for both players and developers.” It would seem like just another message, that typical ‘CEO language’ that so many managers use, but it has gone one step further by committing to something interesting: “Today we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox while bringing in new voices to help us move forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track. As part of this change, we will begin removing features that do not align with our intentions and plans for the future. “We will begin scaling back Copilot on mobile devices and will stop development of Copilot on consoles.” CoreAI Avalanche. This implies a shift in the strategy of a Microsoft that, like others like Meta, they had become an AI company. They have pushed Copilot to its limits, putting it on capon even on televisions thanks to commercial agreements or by renaming its office suite so that, now, its most important services were Copilot and, therefore, artificial intelligence. These statements, therefore, represent an interesting change, as interesting as seeing who are those who now manage Xbox. Sharma talks about “new voices” and what contrasts with this plan to dismantle Copilot in some of the products is that many of them come from… CoreAI. As they point our colleagues from 3DJuegos, The Verge raises a list of four very important members of that AI division who, now, come to Xbox to work with Sharma when defining the future strategy and the new machine: Project Helix. Return to fan. It is not Sharma’s only turn in this short period at the helm of Xbox. From the “everything is an Xbox” campaign, tremendously controversial because if everything is an Xbox, nothing is, we move on to a “we are xbox“, a return to those origins in which an Xbox is an Xbox, and that’s it. Well, also the PC, which is receiving its ‘Xbox mode‘ to improve the video game experience. There is rumors that they are considering returning to exclusives (PC and Xbox) abandoning launches on platforms such as PlayStation 5 and They have lowered the price of Game Pass Ultimatethat it was shot a few months ago. Of course, although they lowered the price, they also left ‘Call of Duty’ out of the subscription, so that reduction is misleading. I want to believe. Now, you have to be careful with all this. Although they are already taking some actions (that “reduction” of Game Pass or stopping the development of Copilot on Xbox), the return to exclusives and the roots of Xbox are issues that remain to be seen. Until they start taking more forceful action, we won’t be able to assess how far Sharma has gone to do things differently. Furthermore, and it is not to look for spins on Sharma’s statements, the board has pointed out that they stop Copilot on consoles. And that word, “consoles,” is very important because we don’t know what Project Helix will be. Your new machine definitely cannot be classified as a console because the machine itself Microsoft is positioning it as a PCone in which the crisis of components will impact strongly both in availability and price and it remains to be seen if they miss that opportunity to bring AI to the living rooms. But well, it is evident that the new CEO has arrived at Xbox wanting to wage war and we can think “ok, but above it is someone with more power: Satya Nadella.” And yes, Nadella has been one of the great drivers of converting Microsoft into an AI company, but just yesterday the company’s CEO sent a powerful message: clean Windows of so much garbage to win back the fans. Only time will tell, but it is evident that Microsoft’s image is not going through its best moment. In Xataka | France wants to “become independent” from Windows and embrace Linux: Extremadura has a lesson to transmit

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